Warner private user search canceled

County-owned historic building could be used for government offices

The search for a private user for the historic Warner Mansion in Kensington has been canceled without finding one because Park and Planning officials said all of the submitted proposals required too much public financial backing.

"We basically see that we've done our due diligence," said Department of Parks Legacy Open Space Program Manager Brenda Sandberg. "From the very beginning we knew that it would be a challenge to find an appropriate partner."

Sandberg said now the county, which acquired the building in 2007 through the Legacy Open Space program, will look for a public use for the property. Sandberg said that could be relocating the town offices, or using the space for Park and Planning offices, and that bond money already allocated by the state could be spent toward a public use of the property.

Sandberg would not reveal how many applications had been made to the Request for Proposals (RFP) issued by the county soliciting reuse ideas for the historic home of Kensington's founder Brainerd Warner, nor would she reveal what the financial backing from the public would have been for the received proposals. She said during a normal RFP the reason for cancelation would not even be revealed, but "we thought we needed to be clear with the public and the press."

Mayor Peter Fosselman said he is "disappointed, but I understand," about the conclusion of the RFP. "I think we're looking forward to working with Park and Planning. They've been great to work with so far."

Fosselman said he believed the town offices in the current location on Mitchell Street to be "pretty content" and doesn't think the town requires as much space as Warner Mansion has to offer, but he wouldn't rule out moving there and sharing the space with another entity.

"It's definitely a possibility that the town would entertain," Fosselman said. "We have discussed it in the past but I was surprised the public-private process had exhausted itself."

Clay Kaufman, the assistant head of Siena School, which teaches college-bound students with language-based learning challenges such as dyslexia, said the Silver Spring school submitted several versions of a proposal to the RFP but none were accepted.

"We were disappointed of course, we thought that it's a unique property that has great potential and as citizens of the community we hate to see it lie vacant," Kaufman said.

Kaufman said the school was "disappointed there wasn't a clearer resolution," and will continue to look for a new location while rooting for some kind of use for Warner Mansion.

"We are hopeful that something happens with it because the building is gorgeous and the setting is gorgeous."

Duane Thompson, president of Citizens United to Save the Circle, a group of residents that live near the circle and has been involved in the Legacy Open Space process, was measured in his response to the RFP's cancelation.

"It's disappointing in a way, but not surprising given the economic climate that the evaluation panel did not find any applicants that had the right kind of financial resources," Thompson said. "I think there could have been questions raised about the intensity of uses with these groups even if they had the financial wherewithal."

He said a user such as a school may have changed the nature of the property by adding restrictions, and said some members of the group feel using the location for the town offices "would be a very appropriate location because visually it's a central, historic location."

"I'm encouraged actually by the fact that the evaluation committee wanted to use a private entity but still felt the need to examine it carefully," Thompson said.